Category: Articles (Page 137 of 258)

Personal opinions and how-to’s that I’ve written both here and as contributions to other blogs.

WordPress and Data Ownership, Social Networks and Privacy

January 12, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

I try to be pretty open-minded about most things. That is, I try not to be legalistic or dogmatic about any particular idea. If something comes along that contradicts something I hold true or near and dear, I’m willing to evaluate the evidence and see if it reinforces or challenges what I believe.

Admittedly, there are people who are better at it than I am but I do my best.

But one thing I absolutely cannot get passed – and this is something becoming more and more prevalent the older I get and the more I work in software, specifically in open source – is the idea of data ownership.

And I believe there’s a direct result between what we’re able to do with WordPress and data ownership that can positively impact the type of solutions we release and we’ve yet to even realize we can build.

Should WordPress Product Support Be In-House?

January 8, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

When asked if product support is done in-house by the company who built the product, the easy answer appears to be yes, doesn’t it? I mean, why would you have it any other way?

More specifically, why would you have someone who doesn’t work for your company handle support for something you (or you and your team) built?

Sure, there are loopholes – a phrase I use loosely in this post – for this like hiring someone to work for your company who can be a dedicated resource to handling support of the product when they aren’t as familiar with the product.

But when that happens, I think the lack of experience shows when you start to get into slightly more complicated issues.

The Advantages of Creating an Interface

January 7, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

In web development, I think many who here the term “interface” or who talk about “creating an interface” usually refer to how the page, site, or graphics will look.

And that’s completely normal because when the majority of outlets – presentations, news, articles, media, etc. – talk about the way something looks as it relates to technology, they always talk about its interface.

Not to mention, it is the correct term.

But when it comes to object-oriented programming, the idea of creating an interface is a bit different. Rather than referring to the way a program looks, you could say that it has more to do with how it functions.

Even that isn’t necessarily the proper definition, but it’s close enough. If you’re an experienced programmer, then you’re likely already familiar with this idea.

But if you’re someone who’s just getting into object-oriented programming (specifically using PHP in the context of WordPress), then maybe this will help when designing the architecture of your next project.

Don’t Over-Engineer Your Project

January 6, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

Over the last few days, I’ve been building the site that’s going to power the membership aspects of the WordPress Development course I’m working on. Initially, I went into the project like any other developer: I was ready to sit down, start writing code, handle a bunch of configuration, and generally tweak my WordPress installation at a level that I was convinced would take me a long time.

But it wasn’t like that at all.

And that’s something I know developers are plagued with more often than they – or we – would like to admit:

We over-engineer our solutions all of the time.

It doesn’t have to be like that, though. It takes a slightly different approach and it requires that we fight our natural inclinations, but it can be done.

It just requires a more pragmatic approach.

Want a Pressware Shirt?

January 4, 2016 / Tom

In all of the time I’ve worked for myself, I’ve only attempted to print a Pressware shirt once. Even then, I placed an order for about 20 or so (and they were mainly used to give to friends and family).

Pressware Shirts

For 2016, I’d love to change that so for the first time, I’m holding a TeeSpring Campaign where I’m having some shirts printed up. At the time of this writing, the minimum order has already been fulfilled (which is really humbling); however, I wanted to let everyone know about this.

The only goal isn’t just to have some shirts made, though. It’s to help promote you, your work, or whatever cause you’d like mentioned here on this blog.